Watch Flea in Emotional ‘Boy Erased’ Trailer

The movie is based on the memoir of the same name that tells the story of Garrard Conley’s experiences in a gay-conversion therapy program, where he was sent after his Baptist pastor father and his wife discovered he was gay. The parents are played by Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, while the lead character, Jared, is played by Lucas Hedges from Manchester by the Sea.

In the trailer, Flea is seen as something of a “drill sergeant” in charge of a line of young men standing to attention, telling them to “Fake it till you make it – become the men you are not.” In other parts of the clip, Jared is told that being gay is a choice, that “God will not love you the way that you are,” being ordered to say he hates his father when he insists he doesn’t and being advised by another program victim, played by pop star Troye Sivan, to “tell them what they want to hear. Play the part, unless you really think you can change … or even want to.”

You can watch the trailer below.

Flea recently confirmed that his own memoir, Acid for the Children, will be published on Sept. 25. Last year, he said the discovery of music had probably saved his life. “When I was a kid, I was heading for trouble," he said. "I was running around in the street, I was robbing, I was breaking into houses, I was doing drugs. I was cutting class and smoking weed. The one thing that kept me together and kept me straight was music. The only reason I even went to school was because I liked playing in the band.”